From German Published Patent Application No. 101 09 407, for instance, a fuel injector having a seal situated on the discharge side is known. The seal, which is made of a copper-tin alloy or stainless steel, for example, is situated in an annular groove radially surrounding a nozzle body and in this way is axially fixed in place with form-locking and seals the fuel injector from a cylinder head.
A particular disadvantage of the fuel injector known from the aforementioned printed publication is that because of the completely form-fitting embedding of the seal the seal cannot be placed as close to the transition to the combustion chamber as desired. This allows gases or fuel present in the combustion chamber to penetrate the gap situated between the discharge-side end of the fuel injector and the cylinder head, and results in leakages at the seal in that, for instance, the seal is lifted off the annular groove, or uncombusted fuel deposits in the gap, which can have a detrimental effect on the exhaust gas.